Posted inBuddhism Reality Science

Relationship is the essential nature of reality

Some people are attracted to an "Eastern" holistic outlook on life. Others, to a "Western" analytical viewpoint. I've always thought that these were just two different ways of looking at reality, with each having its strengths and weaknesses. But some passages in Winifred Gallagher's Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life present another possibility. She describes research by psychologist Richard Nisbett about how Americans and Japanese describe an underwater scene quite differently. Americans focus on the largest and most colorful fish, while the Japanese would say things such as "It looked like a stream. The water was green. There were rocks…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Taoism/Tai Chi

Are Buddhism and Taoism akin to Sant Mat?

People here in the West often speak of "Eastern religions" as if they were all alike. This shows how little understanding citizens of predominantly Christian nations have of other cultures. Actually, some Eastern faiths have as much, or even more, in common with the Big Monotheistic Three (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) as they do with monistic/atheistic teachings such as Buddhism and Taoism. Case in point: Sant Mat, which means the "path of saints." For about thirty-five years I was an active member of an India-based Sant Mat organization, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, so I know whereof I speak. That's why I…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas Spiritual practice/meditation

Vastness might be us, not a separate self

Somebody in my house picked up Suzanne Segal's book, "Collision With the Infinite, " this morning. Outwardly, it seemed to be me. But inwardly, it didn't feel that way. Even though I've got a bunch of books in my meditation area that were ripe for reading, I was drawn to move into an adjoining bedroom and look over the contents of a couple of bookcases. My right hand followed my eyes after I spotted the book. Holding it, I didn't have a sense either that I'd made a decision, or that a decision had made me. Something simply had happened.…
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Posted inBuddhism Personal/Stories Radha Soami Satsang Beas

“Jaded old men,” identify yourselves!

OK, I'm demanding that you guys out yourself. No more hiding in the closet. Paul, who left this comment today on a previous post about Radha Soami Satsang Beas, has discovered that this blog is full of "jaded old men" who have forgotten the wonder of life. All I have to say is that I read Brian's writings as I have always found his thinking to be well thought out. I have read his books and his thinking inspired me. Well my opinion of this blog has changed. It has become a pathetic playground for people to bash other peoples…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

“Am I a Who?” better question than “Who am I?”

I'm a cliche. But then, who isn't? My philosophical approach to life falls squarely into the cliched "I'm spiritual but not religious" vein that we hear so much about nowadays -- using spiritual in a decidedly non-supernatural sense. So even though I've forsaken organized religion, I continue to enjoy pondering questions that are increasingly appearing to me as imponderable. Such as, "Who am I?" In one of the comments that make up an interesting interchange on this post, Mike Williams said: "If I realize that there is no 'self', then why would I think of a 'journey' being completed? I…
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Posted inBuddhism Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Almost all spiritual paths lead up Mount Ego

For about thirty-five years, from age 20 to 55 (I'm now sixty-one), I meditated assiduously in accordance with the tenets of Radha Soami Satsang Beas -- an India-based guru-centered organization whose teachings claim to be able to unite the soul with God. However, what I learned from my immersion in the deep waters of organized religosity is applicable to almost every sort of spiritual path (to mix watery and earthy metaphors). True believers generally feel that they're becoming less selfish, egotistical, and me-centered through their devotion to...whatever or whoever. God, guru, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, cosmic consciousness, Great Spirit, etc.…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Live in here and now. Also, there and then.

I've got a fondness for Buddhism, and it's sister faith, Taoism. I especially like how Buddhist and Taoist teachings emphasize the here and now, this present moment. For example, Buddhist "guiding teacher" Rodney Smith says in his book, Stepping Out of Self-Deception: Spiritual fulfillment can be defined as a complete abiding in the here and now. This is a refreshing philosophical antidote to sacred and secular then-and-there'ness. Both religious dogma and materialistic advertising promise that we'll be truly content only if we obtain something in the future and/or in another place. Jesus awaits in heaven. A guru awaits on some…
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Posted inBuddhism

What I love about Buddhist meditation

Reality is made up of yin and yang, seeming opposites that actually aren't. Atoms wouldn't exist without positive and negative charges, so neither would we. Thus when I wrote recently about my main gripe with Buddhist meditation, I knew that I wanted to balance that negativity with some positive props. After all, a bunch of Buddhism-themed books reside in my morning meditation area. I enjoy them a lot. Except when they get into my gripe zone, explicit or implicit claims that human consciousness somehow is able to enter into a state of pure observing -- either of the inner mind…
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Posted inBuddhism

My main gripe with Buddhist meditation

I've reached a point in my churchless evolution where most religious, spiritual, mystical, and metaphysical writings now irritate me more than they inspire. Even my big collection of Rumi books sit dustily on a shelf -- though I went through a period not long ago when I couldn't stop immersing myself in Rumi's enticing prose and poetry. Buddhism is a sometimes exception. Sometimes, because my attraction to Buddhist literature depends on how non-Buddhist it is. I like "Kill the Buddha" stuff, where the author urges us to throw away Buddhist dogma in favor of our own personal experience, even if…
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Posted inBuddhism

Nice simple description of Zen

I've read lots of books about Buddhism and Zen. Often the core teachings get submerged under a bunch of confusing verbiage. So it was refreshing to pick up "The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi" and find a wonderfully clear introduction by the translator, Burton Watson.Of all the world's "spiritual" faiths (using that term loosely), Zen Buddhism and it's iconoclastic cousin, Taoism, strike me as being the least religious'y. Burton makes this clear. I'm not endorsing what he says as the gospel truth -- that'd be opposed to what he says, even if I heartily believed in it. I just wanted…
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Posted inBuddhism Science Taoism/Tai Chi

If there’s no “me,” I don’t have any problems

Following up on "My best guess about God" musings, I wanted to take another crack of getting down to the core of a whole lot of religiosity, spirituality, mysticism, and philosophy.My inspiration is Wei Wu Wei's "Open Secret," which I finished today. Like many books with a Zen, Buddhist, Taoist, Advaita, or non-dual slant, I passed through many stages of literary emotion while reading it.Interest. Irritation. Confusion. Agreement. Contentment. Bewilderment. To name a few.What kept me turning the pages were the glimpses of something intriguingly simple that the author, a.k.a. Terence Gray, was trying to communicate. It isn't an original…
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Posted inBuddhism

My super-simple view of Buddhism

Yesterday, during my Tai Chi class, I had an insightful flash moment that encapsulated how I look upon Buddhism (and also other forms of spirituality) these churchless days.We started off by doing the Yang Long Form. I'm familiar with the form, which, not surprisingly, is long. About twenty minutes worth of prescribed movements, though we usually breeze through the form a bit more quickly.Tai Chi often is described as "moving meditation." Yeah, it seems that way to me. Just as when I do my unmoving meditation, sometimes while doing Tai Chi my mind is calm and centered, and other times…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Meditation: nothing special, whatever is going on

Cosmic. Earthy. Whichever, or neither, the day after I asked (and answered) "Is meditation different from simply living life?" I came across a great little book by Steve Hagen that addressed the same question.I found "Meditation: Now or Never" in a Malibu metaphysical bookstore. My wife and I were spending a few last hours shopping in the Malibu Country Mart after a pleasant weekend of granddaughter-visiting and beautiful people-watching. (See here.)I've enjoyed Hagen's other books, "Buddhism Plain and Simple" and "Buddhism is Not What You Think." When religiosity is stripped away from Buddhism, I find it pretty darn appealing.We experience…
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Posted inBuddhism

If soul is real, we’ll never know

Lots of people believe in what philosophers call "mind-body dualism." Or if they're mystically or religiously inclined, they'll say that the soul is the non-physical side of who we are.Regardless, this is a dualistic view of life. It's nothing new. Plato was a dualist, as was Descartes. Nowadays, science has discredited the notion that human consciousness has a metaphysical aspect. Mind states clearly are related to brain states. There's no convincing evidence that consciousness exists separate from a body.Yet belief in an immaterial soul or mind that survives physical death is still widespread. Most Christians believe this. So do most…
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Posted inBuddhism

Brit Hume blasts Tiger Woods’ Buddhism

Ooh, I'm so excited! It's just what we needed to spice up the New Year -- a new front in the religious wars. Brit Hume of Fox News has dissed the 350 to 500 million Buddhists in the world by saying Tiger Woods needs to ditch Buddhism and embrace Christianity in order to recover from his infidelity scandal and be a great example to the world.Not surprisingly, this has irked Buddhists, who usually are pretty darn mild-mannered. I'm not sure what a Buddhist "jihad" or "crusade" would be called, but the Progressive Buddhism blog has started one against Brit Hume.Could…
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Posted inBuddhism Wu Project

New year’s enlightenment resolution: nothing

I used to make New Year's resolutions. Now, my attitude is, "what's the point?" If I want to make a change in my life, I will, no matter what part of the year it is. Doesn't have to be January 1.When I was a religious true believer, I'd often vow to meditate more assiduously, be a better person (details left necessarily vague), or otherwise try harder to close the gap between a conception of my ideal self and who I felt myself to be.Master Woof thinks this is a stupid thing to do. So do I. If Master Woof was…
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Posted inBuddhism

I’d love my self if I had one

Proving, or not, that profound insights are found in the strangest places, I'll share some of the lyrics to an atonal song that I made up and love to "sing" (using that word in its absolutely loosest sense) in the shower.I love my dog.I love my cat.Only problem is, I don't have a cat.It's hard to loveWhat you don't have.This is how I also feel about loving God. Or, my self. Except seemingly there's more evidence for a "self" than for "God." Buddhism, though, seizes on that seemingly and runs with it to an intriguing, reasonable, and scientifically defensible conclusion.I…
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Posted inBuddhism

Stephen Bachelor’s appealing agnostic Buddhism

Often people say that it's hard to tell whether Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion. This makes me give it a semi-enthusiastic churchless thumbs-up. I enjoy the Buddhist way of looking at reality. It's the religious side of Buddhism that gives me pause. So whenever I come across a writer who is knowledgeable about subtracting religiosity from Buddhism, I'm eager to read what he or she has to say.My favorite author in this genre is Stephen Bachelor. His "Buddhism Without Beliefs" is a terrific book. When I feel in the need of some godless inspiration, I pick it up.As…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Liberation: freedom from craving to be perfect

Authoritarian religion draws its power from an understandable desire: for perfection. This craving leads people to bow down before supposedly holy books, holy people, and holy dogmas that, they believe, will give them what they can't find in this imperfect world.Such is the central theme of Stephen Bachelor's terrific foreword to "American Guru," a book about Andrew Cohen's abuse of his students/disciples. (I'll have more to say about this book when I've finished it; it's a disturbing tale of guru worship gone bad.)I like Stephen Bachelor a lot. He's a secular Buddhist who does a great job of sifting the…
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Posted inBuddhism Humor

Enlightenment: there’s an iPhone app for that

Since I love my iPhone, and it can reliably guide me to earthly destinations, I figured that spiritual enlightenment also would be available via one of the many downloadable applications for this marvelous device.And yes, it was. In the form of Guided Insight Meditation.Buddha must have been looking out for me, because I came across this app on the very last day, October 17, that it was still free. (As of now, you'll have to fork out $2.99 for enlightenment. Plus the cost of an iPhone, if you've got bad karma and don't have one yet.)I liked how most of…
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